New Bojangles’ opens at site of one of the first-ever franchises

Cam McRae stood among the loud hustle and bustle of new employees training in the kitchen, contemplating the tray of biscuits before him.

“Biscuit-making is an art,” McRae said.

President of Kinston-based Tands, Inc., McRae opened his first Bojangles’ at 400 W. Vernon Ave. on July 25, 1980. After two years of working through what to do with the aging structure, he and other Tands executives made the call to demolish the building and put a new structure in its place.

Biscuits and fried chicken begin going out the drive thru window of the historic Vernon Avenue restaurant for the first time since July 8 at 5:30 a.m. today.

“We wrestled a long time with whether to do a major remodel on the other one, but the fact of the matter is I was pretty nostalgic about it,” McRae said. “This was my first restaurant — I was the opening manager, wearing the paper hat and striped shirt and that sort of thing. (Tands Director of Expansion and Development) Gerald Forrest was my assistant manager at our first store.”

Now, Tands has the Bojangles’ franchisee rights for 31 counties in Eastern North Carolina and operates stores in the Richmond-Petersburg corridor in Virginia.

The new store contains memorabilia from the 1980 launch, such as a framed women’s uniform and photographs of McRae and staff from that time period.

“We would come down here to paint, after closing,” McRae said. “My wife and I — Sally — our kids at the time were small, and we’d put their sleeping bags on the floor while we painted the store. We did everything ourselves. Gerald and I did a lot of the landscaping.”

While McRae said the core of the menu items and product consistency were retained over the years, a number of things didn’t. For instance, each table used to have a pack of matches and an ashtray.

And on Day 1, there weren’t any eggs or dairy to be had. The first breakfast at the West Vernon Avenue store resulted in less than $4 in sales — that would be less than $11.35 in today’s dollars.

With the site’s reopening, about 40 percent of its employees from before the demolition will return — they were cycled to other locations during the past three months. Tim Murray, an 18-year Bojangles’ veteran who started at the biscuit table, returns as the store’s director.

Monday, he oversaw a packed kitchen full of trainees ahead of today’s reopening, wearing a stopwatch around his neck.

“What we do is 30 seconds until service, so we clock the employees to make sure they’re reaching their customer service time,” Murray said.

About eight to 15 people are on duty for any given shift, and the store represents about 60 total employees.

In the back of the kitchen, Murray pointed out the two large walk-in coolers that were installed. One’s solely dedicated to housing chicken, while the other contains produce.

Bojangles’ began in 1977 in Charlotte, and the Kinston location was the 14th store in operation. There are now more than 500 locations through the South and Mid-Atlantic, and two on Isla de Roatan off the coast of Honduras.

McRae said Tands expects to expand to 60 locations, up from 56, by the end of the year.

Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @WolfeReports.

Get your Bo on

The newly rebuilt Bojangles’ at 400 W. Vernon Ave. reopens this morning at 5:30. The first 500 customers will receive a free gift, while there will be coupon giveaways the rest of the day.